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Books > History > History of specific subjects > Industrial history
In this biography, author and scholar Harold C. Livesay examines
the life and legacy of Andrew Carnegie, one of the greatest
captains of industry and philanthropists in the history of the
United States. Paperback, brief, and inexpensive, each of the
titles in the "Library of American Biography Series" focuses on a
figure whose actions and ideas significantly influenced the course
of American history and national life. In addition, each biography
relates the life of its subject to the broader themes and
developments of the times.
How prisons became economic development strategies for rural
Appalachian communities As the United States began the project of
mass incarceration, rural communities turned to building prisons as
a strategy for economic development. More than 350 prisons have
been built in the U.S. since 1980, with certain regions of the
country accounting for large shares of this dramatic growth.
Central Appalachia is one such region; there are eight prisons
alone in Eastern Kentucky. If Kentucky were its own country, it
would have the seventh highest incarceration rate in the world. In
Coal, Cages, Crisis, Judah Schept takes a closer look at this
stunning phenomenon, providing insight into prison growth, jail
expansion and rising incarceration rates in America's hinterlands.
Drawing on interviews, site visits, and archival research, Schept
traces recent prison growth in the region to the rapid decline of
its coal industry. He takes us inside this startling transformation
occurring in the coalfields, where prisons are often built on top
of old coalmines, including mountaintop removal sites, and built
into community planning approaches to crises of unemployment,
population loss, and declining revenues. By linking prison growth
to other sites in this landscape-coal mines, coal waste, landfills,
and incinerators-Schept shows that the prison boom has less to do
with crime and punishment and much more with the overall
extraction, depletion, and waste disposal processes that
characterize dominant development strategies for the region. Schept
argues that the future of this area now hangs in the balance,
detailing recent efforts to oppose its carceral growth. Coal,
Cages, Crisis offers invaluable insight into the complex dynamics
of mass incarceration that continue to shape Appalachia and the
broader United States.
London has always been a bustling place of trade; once the docks
teemed with men, ships and goods from all over the world. Now all
has been transformed: starting at Canary Wharf and continuing at
the Royal Docks, a vibrant new area has sprung into existence
providing commerce, housing, shops and restaurants. In London's
Docklands the author takes you on a journey though the historical
development of the area. He outlines life at the docks, the
troubled industrial relations, their heyday as the hub of the
Empire's trade and their eventual demise. Discover a collection of
unique buildings, hidden tunnels, pioneering voyages and historical
riverside pubs.
Every town and city has its story, but few have a history that is
essential to understanding how the modern world was made.
Manchester was the first industrial city and arguably the first
modern city. During the industrial revolution it became the centre
of the world's trade in cotton goods, so associated with that
product that it was known as 'Cottonopolis'. In the nineteenth
century Manchester was recognised across the globe as a symbol of
industrialism and modernity. It was one of those iconic cities that
came to stand for something more than itself. Its global reach
stretched beyond industrialism as such and encompassed the
political and economic ideas that the industrial revolution
spawned. Manchester was simultaneously the home of the capitalist
ideology of Free Trade (famously naming its chief public building
in honour of this idea) and the place where Marx and Engels plotted
the communist revolution. The history of modern Manchester opens
doors to an understanding of how science helped shape the modern
world from the discoveries of Dalton and Joule to Rutherford's
splitting of the atom, the first stored-program computer and the
invention of graphene. But Manchester has also been home to
sporting and cultural achievements from the prowess of its football
teams to its media presence in television. The city has been the
venue for the expression of numerous voices of protest and
affirmation from the Peterloo demonstrators in 1819 to the
Suffragettes nearly a century later and the Gay protests of more
recent times. It has always been a cosmopolitan city with a lively
mix of ethnic groups that has added celebration and tension to its
cultural and social life. Over time the population growth in and
around Manchester generated an urban sprawl that became a city
region. 'Greater Manchester' has been a reality for over a century
and along with Greater London is the only metropolitan region to be
named after its core city. As the industrial base on which the city
and region had depended for two centuries collapsed in the later
twentieth century the city had to take a new path. This it has done
with remarkable success and twenty-first century Manchester is
recognised as the post-industrial city that has been most
successful in reinventing itself. Appreciating how this has
happened is as much a key to understanding Manchester as is
knowledge of its past greatness. Written by leading experts on the
history of the city and with numerous insights and unexpected
stories, this profusely illustrated book is essential for an
understanding of what Manchester has been and what it can become.
The headline, "Where Glass is King," emblazoned Toledo newspapers
in early 1888, before factories in the Ohio city had even produced
their first piece of glass. After years of struggling to find an
industrial base, Toledo had attracted Edward Drummond Libbey and
his struggling New England Glass Company to the shores of the
Maumee River, and many felt Toledo's potential as "The Future Great
City of the World" would at last be realized. The move was
successful - though not on the level some boosters envisioned - and
since 1888, Toledo glass factories have employed thousands of
workers who created the city's middle class and developed technical
innovations that impacted the glass industry worldwide. But as has
occurred in other cities dominated by single industries - from
Detroit to Pittsburgh to Youngstown - changes to the industry it
built have had a devastating impact on Toledo. Today, 45 percent of
all glass is manufactured in China. Well-researched yet accessible,
this new book explores how the economic, cultural, and social
development of the Glass City intertwined with its namesake
industry and examines Toledo's efforts to reinvent itself amidst
the Midwest's declining manufacturing sector.
A detailed study of Ipswich at a time of great growth and
prosperity, highlighting the activities of its industries,
merchants and craftsmen. Ipswich in the late Middle Ages was a
flourishing town. A wide range of commodities passed through its
port, to and from far-flung markets, bought and sold by merchants
from diverse backgrounds, and carried in ships whose design evolved
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Its trading
partners, both domestic and overseas, changed in response to
developments in the international, national and local economy, as
did the occupations of its craftsmen,with textile, leather and
metal industries were of particular importance. However, despite
its importance, and the richness of its medieval archives, the
story of Ipswich at the time has been sadly neglected. This is a
gap whichthe author here aims to remedy. His careful study allows a
detailed picture of urban life to emerge, shedding new light not
only on the borough itself, but on towns more generally at a
crucial point in their development, at a period of growing
affluence when ordinary people enjoyed an unprecedented rise in
standards of living, and the benefits of what might be termed our
first consumer revolution. Nicholas Amor gained his doctorate from
the University of East Anglia.
This book examines the American industrial strategy, from the late
70s to the present day, in what is now known as the 'neoliberal
era'. The author illustrates the ways in which the protection and
promotion of American companies and industries took place in the
context of the international 'free market'. He provides clear
evidence of how the economic power of the United States - wielded
to influence the formal and informal institutions of the neoliberal
order - has been used as a tool for enhancing its competitive
advantage against other world economies.
The Ironbridge Gorge, a cradle of the Industrial Revolution, in the
late 18th century was a magnet for writers, artists and industrial
spies. The latest wonders of engineering and metallurgical
technology were to be seen in a spectacular natural setting, where
the fast-flowing Severn passed between towering cliffs of
limestone, and hillsides honeycombed with mine workings amid the
smoke of furnaces and the clanking of engines. Barrie Trinder, the
acknowledged authority on the subject, has selected the most
interesting descriptions and pictures to provide an invaluable
anthology, through contemporary evidence, of the place and the
people in that pioneering period, when this corner of Shropshire
was changing the world and was indeed, as Charles Hulbert described
it in 1837, 'the most extraordinary district in the world'. This
book has become essential reading for anyone with an interest in
the history of this fascinating area, or in the Industrial
Revolution in general. It brings new understanding of the gorge
itself and the industrial monuments preserved there and new
insights for the specialist historian, whether concerned with
social conditions, popular religion or industrial technology. This
edition will continue to serve the same main groups of readers -
local historians, educational groups and specialist historians -
and, most of all, those general readers who know the area and
recognise that something strange and seminal happened there that
transformed not only Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale but the whole of
our civilisation. The activity that once made the gorge so
extraordinary has spread and grown to become a commonplace in
modern industrial societies, leaving the place where it began a
monument and a museum.
Since the 1960s, nations across the "developed world" have been
profoundly shaped by deindustrialization. In regions in which
previously dominant industries faced crises or have disappeared
altogether, industrial heritage offers a fascinating window into
the phenomenon's cultural dimensions. As the contributions to this
volume demonstrate, even as forms of industrial heritage provide
anchors of identity for local populations, their meanings remain
deeply contested, as both radical and conservative varieties of
nostalgia intermingle with critical approaches and straightforward
apologias for a past that was often full of pain, exploitation and
struggle.
After the Second World War, the drive for the modernisation of
Britain's railways ushered in a new breed of locomotive: the
Diesel. Diesel-powered trains had been around for some time, but
faced with a coal crisis and the Clean Air Act in the 1950s, it was
seen as a part of the solution for British Rail. This beautifully
illustrated book, written by an expert on rail history, charts the
rise and decline of Britain's diesel-powered locomotives. It covers
a period of great change and experimentation, where the iconic
steam engines that had dominated for a century were replaced by a
series of modern diesels including the ill-fated 'Westerns' and the
more successful 'Deltics'.
Militant Minority tells the compelling story of British Columbia
workers who sustained a left tradition during the bleakest days of
the Cold War. Through their continuing activism on issues from the
politics of timber licenses to global questions of war and peace,
these workers bridged the transition from an Old to a New Left.
In the late 1950s, half of B.C.'s workers belonged to unions,
but the promise of postwar collective bargaining spawned
disillusionment tied to inflation and automation. A new working
class that was educated, white collar, and increasingly rebellious
shifted the locus of activism from the Communist Party and
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation to the newly formed New
Democratic Party, which was elected in 1972. Grounded in archival
research and oral history, Militant Minority provides a valuable
case study of one of the most organized and independent working
classes in North America, during a period of ideological tension
and unprecedented material advance.
The formation of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1982, its aim
for solidarity amongst mineworkers, opposition from the Chamber of
Mines and the struggle for survival after the strike defeat by the
Anglo American Corporation in 1987. As the crisis of Apartheid
intensified the NUM played a crucial role in winning support for
both the African National Congress and the South African Communist
Party. It aided both organisations by re-creating their
infra-structures through the provision of accommodation, national
and local officials and finance
When we think about Victorian factories, 'Dark Satanic Mills' might
spring to mind - images of blackened buildings and exhausted,
exploited workers struggling in unhealthy and ungodly conditions.
But for some employees this image was far from the truth, and this
is the subject of 'The Factory in a Garden' which traces the
history of a factory gardens movement from its late-eighteenth
century beginnings in Britain to its twenty-first century
equivalent in Google's vegetable gardens at their headquarters in
California. The book is the first study of its kind examining the
development of parks, gardens, and outdoor leisure facilities for
factories in Britain and America as a model for the reshaping of
the corporate environment in the twenty-first century. This is also
the first book to give a comprehensive account of the contribution
of gardens, gardening and recreation to the history of responsible
capitalism and ethical working practices. -- .
This biography of Andrew Carnegie emphasizes the economic dimension
of his career in industry. It examines his life as a dynamic
innovator during the period when the steel industry rapidly
expanded and the United States became a major industrial power.
Carnegie rose from a poverty-stricken Scottish childhood to a
position of international industrial leadership, philanthropy, and
peace advocacy, by means of intelligence, entrepreneurship,
ambition, tenacity, guile, and ruthless determination. It is shown
that Carnegie excelled as an economic actor. His alertness to
expected profit opportunities, and success in coping with the
uncertainties of the marketplace, made him a major influence on the
growth of many of the most important industries of late-nineteenth
century United States and world economies. His contribution to the
better coordination of the actions of both demanders and suppliers
in those industries by managerial, technological, and institutional
innovations is emphasized. It is also argued that those
profit-seeking actions and innovations occurred in the context of
political policies and social institutions that produced a
tremendous mal-investment of resources. This mal-investment was a
result of protective tariffs, the stimulus and waste of war, and
government subsidization of the railroad industry. Carnegie's role
in this massive diversion of resources from other uses to those
from which he personally benefitted is also emphasized. Lastly,
Carnegie's actions in giving away the great personal fortune that
he accumulated as he built his business empire are examined and
their economic implications assessed.
Please note this title is suitable for any student studying: Exam
Board: AQA Level/Subject: AS and A Level History First teaching:
2015 First exams: June 2017 Retaining all the well-loved features
from the previous editions, Industrialisation and the People:
Britain c1783-1885 has been approved by AQA and matched to the 2015
specification. With a strong focus on skills building and exam
practice, this book covers in breadth issues of change, continuity,
and cause and consequence in this period of British history. Its
aim is to enable you to understand and make connections between the
six key thematic questions covered in the specification including:
how was Britain governed, what pressures did governments face, how
did the economy change, and how did society and social policy
develop? Students can further develop vital skills such as
historical interpretations and source analyses via specially
selected sources and extracts. Practice questions and study tips
provide additional support to help familiarize students with the
new exam style questions, and help them achieve their best in the
exam.
In the decades following the 1997 Asian economic crisis, South
Korea sought segyehwa (globalization). Evidence of this is no more
evident than in the country's capital, Seoul, where urban
development has been central to making the city a global hub and
not just the centre of the national economy. However, recent
development projects differ from those of the past in that they no
longer focus solely on economic efficiency, but on the deployment
of a new urban aesthetics. As Jieheerah Yun reveals in Globalizing
Seoul: The City's Cultural and Urban Change, the pursuit of
globalization and the rebranding of Seoul's image from hard
industrial city to soft cultural city have shaped the urban
development of the city. Following a brief urban history of Seoul,
she focuses on two key themes. In the first, how globalization has
contributed to refashioning Korean traditions, she analyzes the
policies and actions to preserve Korean folk houses and
pre-industrial street layouts, looking in detail at the Bukchon and
Insadong areas of the city. Her second theme is an examination of
migration and the generation of new minority neighbourhoods amidst
the segyehwa policies and the state's efforts to build a
multicultural society. In detailed case studies of the
redevelopment of Dongdaemun Market as part of rebranding Seoul as
the 'world design capital' and of the Itaewon area as both a
Special Tourist Zone and a Global Cultural Zone, she shows how
multi-ethnic neighbourhoods are threatened by lack of consideration
for economic justice and housing provision.
Clay Cross is a classic product of the Industrial Revolution. The
town's industrial future was sealed in 1837 with the driving of the
Clay Cross Tunnel and the simutaneous founding of the George
Stephenson Company, which became the Clay Cross Company in 1851.
This book of over 200 photogrpahs gives a glimpse of that
industrial history and forms a sort of industrial directory of the
development of the company and the way that it influenced the lives
of the people of the town. It emphasises the company's paternal
imperatives, which insured retention of labour and moulded a core
of sober and subserviant workers. These old photographs and
documents will bring back strong memories for Clay Cross families
and introduce newcomers to a bygone area. George Stephenson would
be gratified to learn that his company still flourished, now in the
hands of the Biwater Company, and the railway line still runs,
albeit as an Inter-city express.
An innovative study of labor relations, particularly the
interactions of recruitment agents and migrant workers, in the
mining concessions of Wassa, Gold Coast Colony, 1879 to 1909.
Recent years have seen renewed interest in the historical study of
labor in Africa. Unlike those of the past, these new studies are
rooted in the recognition of Africa's dynamic, expansive, and
productive informal sector. While this book focuses on one of West
Africa's earliest large-scale industries, namely the Wassa gold
mines in the southwest Gold Coast, it is not solely concerned with
the traditional working class. Rather, it explores the plurality
oflabor relations that characterized the mining concessions during
the period 1879 to 1909, including the presence of migrants from
various parts of West Africa as well as casual and tributary
laborers, both male and female. In capturing the phenomenon of
labor mobility as it played out in Wassa, Mediators, Contract Men,
and Colonial Capital presents one of the fullest accounts of the
labor agents who regularly brought groups of migrant laborers to
the mines. The narrative discusses these agents' means of
employment and roles in the informalization and indentureship of
labor; in addition, it explores the regional dynamics of the
recruitment machinery and confronts issues of coercion and choice.
Scholars interested in African history, global labor history,
economic history, and women's work in Africa will find much of
value in this innovative study. Cassandra Mark-Thiesen is aResearch
Fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation (Marie-Heim
Voegtlin Grant) in the history department of the University of
Basel.
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